Art for Legend of Wesmere: Legmir

[zookeeper]

<nitpicking>
The Kalenz looks good so far, except his grip is not a swordfighter's grip:

1. You don't grip the hilt right next to the handguard, but leave a little gap between.
2. You don't grip with all fingers, but only with the lowest three. The thumb and the forefinger only curl around the hilt, they don't apply pressure. That way, the sword isn't in a right angle to the arm.

That applies to the japanese sword. Kalenz is clearly using a european-style one there, in which case he would instead likely prefer to grip right next to the crossguard. Sure, you wouldn't really grip strongly with the index finger with such a sword either, but since he is holding the sword in a right angle to the arm, it makes sense to do that. Naturally you don't prevent yourself from holding the sword in a right angle because you're not supposed to use a certain grip, but instead hold the sword in whatever angle you want to and just use the grip which is best for that angle...and Kalenz seems to be choosing to hold it in a right angle in that picture.

[Sgt. Groovy]

but instead hold the sword in whatever angle you want to and just use the grip which is best for that angle

My point was, that it is the grip that dictates the angle (and for that matter, even all-fingers grip doesn't bring the sword to right angle, you would have to bend your wrist back rather awkwardly to accomplish that).

Ironically enough though, the point is moot for people with no experience with swordfighting, which is majority of the intended audience, and for them Kitty's grip probably looks more natural than mine.

[kitty]

@ santi, spaceinvader:

@ doofus: i didn't want him to appear too buff, but i pumped his arm a tad (not as much as you suggested). about the head's position i disagree. i attache a redline where the neck is.

@ groovy: the hand was an easy fix. i just know too less about sword fighting, an old drawing professorer always told us that we can't draw anything (propely) we do not understand, that painting is about the surface but drawing about stucture and analysis... and here i proof it again: i don't understand swords and thus don't draw them adequately.

@ zookeeper: too late - i just changed the hand, but thanks for the info.

[doofus-01]

Thanks for the red lines, I hadn't understood he was still skinny. The shoulder and neck still look off to me, but you know what you're doing so it'll probably look fine when it's shaded.

The crown is nice.

[Sapient]

That Kalenz picture looks awesome! You have really captured a stern yet noble look with that face.

[kitty]

shaded....

[Sgt. Groovy]

Now that I look at it, the shoulder pads on the far side seem much smaller than on the near side (the red lines are of equal length on both sides). The far side is only a bit farther, so perspective shouldn't be enough to account for that big a size difference. The shoulder pads are of course often unsymmetric, but in this case they are very symmetric in shape, so one would expect them to be symmetric in size as well.

[kitty]

couldn't you have said that before i started shading?

[doofus-01]

For what it's worth, the shoulders look OK to me. It looks like he doesn't have any armor on his left upper arm, so wouldn't most people who notice shoulder pad asymmetry assume it is intentional?

[Sapient]

The assymetry seems really minor to me, but I do notice it now that Groovy points that out. The perspective seems like his right shoulder is closer to us than the left one, but more than warranted by the other aspects. It doesn't look like armor difference, though, doofus... for one thing, you wouldn't want the heavier armor on your sword-arm.

Again, it's minor and I would have never noticed it until someone pointed it out. I wouldn't worry about it unless it really bugs you.

[Sgt. Groovy]

couldn't you have said that before i started shading?

Sorry about that, it seems to be one of those things that isn't noticeable immediately (but once you have noticed it, it doesn't stop bugging you).

I'm not sure how critical it is, I guess the easiest fix would be to change one of the shoulderpads (the general shape of it) enough so that one wouldn't expect symmetry anymore.

[kitty]

i reworked the shoulder armour a bit, here is a comparison - what do you think?
(final size now)



(why is the attachment shrinked and i have to click to enlagre it? has it always been this way and i just missed it? it looks really ugly this time!))

[Sapient]

I vote for Sir Mix a lot

[doofus-01]

I also think the mixed one is best.

[thespaceinvader]

Ditto - mixed is good.

As for the attachment, the upgraded forum software automatically limits the displayed size fo attachments to prevent h-scroll and table-breaking, you now have to click to see the full size.